Mike Nadel: Brians are busted, and so are Bears

Monday

Oct 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 29, 2007 at 4:31 AM

With defensive and offensive leaders such as those bodacious Brians, is there any wonder the confused, cantankerous bunch of losers and liars known as the Chicago Bears failed to come through in a game they had deemed critical?

Mike Nadel

Brian Urlacher said he "probably" spoke the truth about his arthritic back condition. Brian Griese dismissed the end-zone interceptions he threw by saying hey, those things happen to aggressive quarterbacks.

With defensive and offensive leaders such as those bodacious Brians, is there any wonder the confused, cantankerous bunch of losers and liars known as the Chicago Bears failed to come through in a game they had deemed critical?

Fewer than nine months after playing in the Super Bowl and with half of this season remaining, Lovie Smith's 2007 Bears are all but finished. So when he wasn't feigning ignorance about Urlacher's situation, the coach was wondering how it all went so bad so quickly.

"There was a lot at stake; I thought we would play better but we didn't," Smith said after his team fell to 3-5 with Sunday's 16-7 loss to the Detroit Lions. "If there is a good part, it's that we get a chance to go back to the basics. We have an extra week to do that and try to figure out what exactly has gone wrong."

And here I thought the good part about the bye week was that none of us have to watch the Bears next Sunday.

As for Urlacher, he clearly isn't moving around as he once did. And when the middle linebacker is suffering, the defense suffers, too.

After refusing to answer questions about his back for weeks, he finally opened up to FoxSports.com's Jay Glazer: "It's a problem that started all the way back in camp. ... This week I flew to Pittsburgh and met with a specialist.

“He confirmed what the team told me, that they think it's an arthritis type of thing. The thing that's so frustrating is there is no clear-cut solution to give me relief. I just have to deal with the pain.

"It prevents me from bending and if I can't bend, I'm not able to be as athletic. ... Right now we're trying to find pain solutions. I've (received shots) to try to find some relief and actually it felt better last week. The frustrating thing is they can't pinpoint it exactly, so I have no idea when it will hurt or hold me back. But the pain is pretty much always there."

Asked about Urlacher's comments, Smith offered only: "Brian admitted having arthritis? I don't know anything about that. It's an online report? I'm not gonna get into any of that right now. There's nothing wrong with his back that would cause him not to be able to play."

Urlacher refused to talk about the FoxSports.com story except to say it "probably" was accurate.

Which is more than Griese could say about so many of his passes.

I had to suppress a chuckle when a TV reporter asked offensive coordinator Ron Turner if Griese's four interceptions Sunday were "uncharacteristic."

"I don't know if they're uncharacteristic or not," Turner said, "but you just can't do 'em." Turner's good answer ... now THAT was uncharacteristic because he has had few answers to the Bears' offensive woes.

The Bears have scored 10 first-quarter points all season, and seven of those came on a Devin Hester return. That means the Bears have had to come from behind more times than not, and they're not built to do that.

Griese has been portrayed as a guy who takes care of the football, and that supposedly is a big reason he replaced Rex Grossman. In fact, he has been a turnover machine during his 10-year journeyman career.

Sunday was typical, as he has thrown 10 picks in his five starts (including seven in two losses to Detroit). Last week's game in Philadelphia, in which he conducted a perfect late drive (and then lied about calling all the plays to make himself appear more heroic), was an aberration.

Here was Griese explaining the two end-zone interceptions that prevented the Bears from attempting field goals: "You have to take chances sometimes to make plays and score points."

Griese might want to discuss that theory with his coach.

"He's trying to make plays, but it's simple: We can't turn the football over," Smith said. "If that means not throwing it in those spots ... that's part of what we do, too."

As often was the case when Grossman had bad games, Griese had plenty of help in the mess-up department. At least six passes were dropped Sunday, and the offensive line was beaten consistently. And because Urlacher's defense rarely creates turnovers any more, the Bears keep getting hit in the face by the sharp sting of reality.

"We don't feel like we're a 3-5 team ... but we are," defensive end Alex Brown said. "It's hard to believe because we have so much talent and so many guys from last year's team. But it's not last year. Last year's not gonna help us. We've got to figure out something."

Good luck with that.

For the Brians and their mates, answers seem every bit as elusive as victories.

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.

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